How to Get Away With Murder – He Betrayed Us Both

By: Dustin Bradley

ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder is back for the final half of Season 5 and boy did it answer some questions and of course set up new mysteries. “He Betrayed Us Both” was an episode filled with flashbacks, vodka, bad wigs, Sam and most importantly answers to a few questions we have had since both the end of last season and the beginning of this one. Let’s recap below!

Well it’s official, Gabriel (Rome Flynn) is Sam Keating’s (Tom Verica) son from his previous marriage. We pick up immediately where we left off before the break with Gabriel in Annalise’s (Viola Davis) apartment asking questions about Sam and his death. Annalise pours a drink and tries to tell him some of the truths about his dad, including that Wes (Alfred Enoch) killed him (which isn’t completely a lie). In the process we get flashbacks to 2005 that fill in the blanks on some of the current story, including how Gabriel knows about Sam and the deal with the adoption and how it would ruin Annalise.

It’s 2005 and Annalise and Sam are back from Ohio and the traumatic experience that was the Mahoney case and losing their baby to a car accident. As soon as they are home Frank (Charlie Weber) expresses his guilt to Sam again for causing the car accident and Sam tells him he can’t take it back and he can’t tell Annalise so from now on the best thing to do is take care of her no matter what. Annalise and Sam are both grieving and they are doing it in different and yet similar ways. Annalise wants to adopt the boy from the Mahoney case, Christoph (who we now know as Wes), and Sam decides he can replace the hole in his heart with the kid he has and never met from his previous marriage, Gabriel.

They argue about the adoption papers that Annalise and Bonnie (Liza Weil) have already sent in and Sam leaves Philly to go “visit [his] sister, Hannah.” Except Sam isn’t visiting Hannah. Instead, he has tracked down Vivian and her mother’s apartment building where they live with Gabriel. Sam pleads with his former mother-in-law that he just wants to meet Gabe and be a part of his life and he gets reminded that he gave that up long ago. It’s right after that that Sam runs into Gabriel himself in the apartment hallway, he tries to have a conversation with him but Gabriel not knowing who he is is very apprehensive and tries to get away. Sam then writes an email that night to Viv saying that he has met Gabe for a split second and it just makes him realize that he’s made a mistake on walking out on them and still loves Vivian (and this is Sam we are talking about so it could be genuine or just the grief talking, but he’s not alive to fix this and even if he was he would just lie his way out of it). Sam then heads back to Philly after he gets word that Annalise has attempted suicide.

We then get some scenes that we have previously seen before regarding Annalise’s suicide attempt, only this time we have a deeper understanding that it’s not only her grief but the fact that her adoption requests have been denied for Christoph. We get lots of bonding with Bonnie and Annalise and this was really the start of the close relationship between them despite Bonnie loving Sam the same way Annalise does. Speaking of bonding, we also get some bonding time between Bonnie and Frank who end up sleeping together since they are both messed up and why not? Truth be told I ship Frank with Bonnie way more than I do him with Laurel. When Sam gets back Frank confronts him with the email to Vivian and tells him to forget all about Gabe and Viv and focus on his current wife who needs him now more than ever.

Back in the present, while Gabe is with Annalise, the Keating Five meet up and ruin Connor (Jack Falahee) and Oliver’s (Conrad Ricamora) wedding night with the news that Laurel (Karla Souza) learned about Gabe and the blood that Michaela (Aja Naomi King) saw on Bonnie’s leg. Michaela assumes that Frank and Bonnie killed Gabriel because he is here investigating what’s happening to Sam, but Laurel assures them all that so far it doesn’t seem like he knows anything. Towards the end of the episode Asher (Matt McGorry) and Michaela try to make up, but Asher is still mad about everything yet he’s softening up eventually allowing Michaela to sleep on the couch with him foot to face style as long as there is no funny business.B

Back in Bonnie’s world, she is still rather upset that Miller potentially played her and that she ended up having to finish the job that Nate started reluctantly to save him and everyone involved. She establishes an alibi at home with the pizza guy and later that night when Frank picks up Nate (Billy Brown) he assures her that she did the right thing and shouldn’t feel guilty because she was just putting him out of his misery. I can’t wait to see how they twist this storyline to clear Bonnie and Nate. In the previews for next week and the rest of the season it looks like they will really have to do some meddling to fix this.

We end the episode with that email Sam wrote once again. This time it is revealed that Frank received it all those years ago and ever since had been in contact with none other than (and almost everyone guessed it)… EVE! That’s right Eve (Famke Janssen) makes her return and shows Annalise the email concluding that Sam knew about Gabriel all along. We then get a glimpse of another mysterious phone call, this time made by Gabriel to an unknown source telling them that he messed up and revealed himself and he needs help with what to do now. Something tells me that this mysterious person is either his mother Vivian (who was cast but never shown earlier this season) or Sam’s sister Hannah (who is played by Marica Gay Harden and hasn’t been shown since right after Sam’s death in season one).